


Slumberland

by Dance_Elle_Dance



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Humor, Male-Female Friendship, Shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4658298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dance_Elle_Dance/pseuds/Dance_Elle_Dance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Would you like to help with the garden, Leah?" </p>
<p>She snorts at his question, but picks up a trowel anyway and replies smugly, "Yeah, might as well be something alive around Leech Manor."</p>
<p>(Originally posted on 5/26/10.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slumberland

**Author's Note:**

> Another Twilight re-post. Another EdwardLeah. I hope y'all enjoy!

She hates going to the Cullen household.

But, obviously since he imprinted on the mutant spawn, this is the place where her Alpha spends most of his time, and she has nothing else better to do, so she just goes with it.

Today was a particularly sunny day, and all of the Cullens were outside, basking in the glow of the sun. Their house was far enough away from everyone else that the threat of being exposed to humans wasn't a factor. Nothing could dim their day, it seems.

Leah sighs and just puts up with it. She hates to admit, but once she got over the stench and the fact that they were mortal enemies, the Cullens weren't bad people. She hates herself for rationalizing it this way, but that's how it goes, she guesses.

She sighs and leans back, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of the soft grass against her body.

The sun is bright against her eyelids and she lets a smile overcome her mouth. She smells the fresh scent of grass, mixed with the dirt - not to mention the sickly sweet smell of leech - around her, and for once, it brings her comfort.

She rolls over onto her side and lets the wind play with her boyishly short hair. Leah feels a nap coming on, and a yawn escapes her lips.

"Leah?"

She winces, knowing who that voice belongs to. The strange smell - not quite leech, not quite human - reaches her nose and she opens her eyes, staring into a pair of intelligent, chocolate brown eyes and a mop of bronze curls that instantly make her feel jealous. "What is it, runt?"

The sun glistens off of her skin, despite the shade of the tree that they are both under. It has the luminescence of a _fucking_ pearl. Leah fights back a groan.

Her hand reaches out and clasps around the larger one of the she-wolf. Leah almost lets out a laugh. None of the other bloodsuckers would even have to guts to do that simple action. Funny how it is the smallest, and least threatening of them all to not care what she was.

Somehow, this makes her heart feel warm.

She rises on her own - so the little spawn doesn't have to exert herself too much, and so she doesn't look too pathetic - and looks down at the smaller girl.

"Daddy wants you to help."

It has only been a few months since she was born, but already the half-breed is speaking in sentences more akin to a seven year old.

"Really now," Leah says, skeptical. What would the almighty Edward Cullen want to help her?

She sends an image in Leah's head of flowers and dirt and her father kneeling with a scoop, digging up weeds.

"So I'm the gardener now?"

Nessie nods.

"Nice, kid, nice."

Leah follows the unnaturally pretty girl, who doesn't break the hold she has on her much larger hand. And, somehow, someway, Leah doesn't break it either. It has been far too long since she has held hands with someone, and she likes the feel - especially since it's a child, of all things. A bitter, unwanted feeling emerges in her heart and she fights back ripping her hand away.

They turn the corner, and there Edward is, in all his _perfection_ , digging at some stubborn root. Which seems ridiculous, since he could just rip the damn thing out with his stupid, leech strength.

"That would ruin the entire garden, Leah," Edward says, his velvety voice soothing to her ears despite herself. Damn him and his damned gift of reading her damn mind.

"I wouldn't call this a garden, Cullen," she replies, looking at the poor excuse for shrubbery growing around the Leech Residence.

"Be nice," Nessie chides at her as she finally lets go of her hand, dancing off most likely to find Jake.

"Would you like to help with the garden, Leah?"

She snorts at his question, but picks up a trowel anyway and replies smugly, "Yeah, might as well be something alive around Leech Manor."

To her surprise, sparkly-perfect Edward _laughs_ at her statement, and the sound is almost too pretty, she thinks despite herself.

"You just feel satisfaction in getting your enemy to work for you."

"Technically, we are working _together_."

Leah is quiet for a moment, turning his words over and over in her head. She supposes it isn't so weird, since the whole _Volturi are going to kill us_ fiasco that happened just a few months earlier, and they had teamed up against that…

" _Technically_ , I don't understand why your… _daughter_ said you needed me."

Leah crouches amongst the weeds, taking enjoyment out of plucking them from the other plants, turning over new patches of dirt. There are several small, budding flowers that have yet to be planted in the soil around the house, and she fights a smile after she realizes that it was this simple thing that she has missed so much.

"Jacob mentioned that you liked gardening," Edward says, his voice soft and an unwilling caress against her ruffled fur. "So I figured that you might like this."

" _Mentioned_ or you _raped his brain_?"

"I suppose it's the latter of the two." Edward laughs at her crude statement.

"Figures," Leah replies, smarmy. "But he's right."

Edward says nothing for a bit, only smiles gently at her before he takes the budding flower from his side and presses it into the hole in the soil that he has made. His white fingers contrast sharply with the dark, brown dirt. The yellow of the flower matches the sunny day, and Leah finds herself smiling along with him, despite herself.

Sometimes, maintaining the fact that she is the "top bitch" gets hard, so she allows herself a few moments of peace, of happiness, of serenity. Without bitterness, though it surely is still there.

Leah digs up a patch of dirt for her own bundle of flowers. She picks out a cluster of purple flowers, with white starbursts in the center, and gently guides them into the space of earth she cleared. Not even she can fight the smile that comes over her face at this simple gesture.

"See?" Edward gives a small smile. "Even _we_ can get along."

Leah returns his smile with a hearty laugh, filled with something he can't pinpoint. "I guess it's more like pulling teeth under the influence of drugs instead of what I originally thought of it as."

Edward seems interested in her train of thought and he prods, "And originally..."

"Armageddon," she deadpans and he lets out a bell-like laugh that causes chills to go down her spine.

"So glad to know that I was so high up on your list of favorite people."

"Sarcasm? Coming from Edward fucking Cullen? I, sir, am truly amazed."

Leah looks over at him, wiping her face with a dirty hand, knowing that she left some traces of dirt on her face, but she doesn't care. Not at the moment. She just gazes at the look on the supposed bronze haired god's face and feels elation for causing him to look so…so…

He bursts into laughter.

Well, at least he was amused.

Edward doesn't know why, but he rather likes her candor - as vulgar as it is - and he grins at her, that famous, lop-sided grin that had stolen his wife's heart. Not to mention various other woman throughout the ages.

The sun is bright overhead, like it has been all day, but now it chooses to fully break free of the clouds and strike the Cullen with full force. The mildly glinting facets of his skin now become blindingly brilliant, flecking off of the newly planted flowers and streaming into the she-wolf's eyes.

Leah raises a hand to shield her eyes. "Your sparkles are blinding me, vamp."

This causes him to laugh again. She reminds him a bit of Jacob, a bit of Seth, and a bit of Rosalie, all mixed up into one. He notes that it is not a bad combination, not at all, and that he rather enjoys it - enjoys her brash nature and hot-tempered, clever retorts.

"Sorry," Edward replies, forcing himself to sound offended, and the fact that he did this causes Leah to laugh once more.

"I would've never thought," Leah begins, her voice speculative and slightly mocking, "that when I read _Dracula_ for the first time, vampires would be real - let alone _sparkle_ like something out of a rave."

This observation causes Edward to laugh yet again. Her words, while sharp, were a valid point. Not even when he was human, picking up the pinnacle of vampire literature, did he realize that he would become one. The sparkling in the sun thing was a new surprise.

"And you've been to a rave?" Edward changes the subject, a skeptical note in his voice.

"Nope," Leah replies, popping the P in the word. "But you look like you have. Does ecstasy even effect bloodsuckers?"

Edward shakes his head. "No - not that I would know. Drugs don't really do anything to us." He sticks his scoop into the ground once more and upturns some more dirt. "Even if they did, I wouldn't tell you. No telling _what_ you would use that knowledge for."

"Oh, you don't trust little old me?" Leah says innocently, batting her lashes in an imitation of most human girls he had seen. "Because, of course, you vamps could kill us in no time!"

"You flatter me."

"You speak the language of sarcasm, yet you cannot recognize it? Hm, perplexing."

The smile does not leave Edward's lips, it only intensifies as he sticks a rather pretty pale pink flower into the space he had just cleared. All of the weeds had been dug up in the time they had spent together at this little project, and now the whole side of the Cullen residence was almost filled with pretty, colorful flowers and whatnot.

All of the flowers, bought from the small flower shop in Forks, were gone now, planted permanently in the soil, taking their roots as the two mortal enemies spoke.

Once Leah recognizes this, she leans back, bracing herself with the heels of her hands and basks in the setting sun. _Maybe it wasn't that bad,_ she tells herself.

"Where's the rest of your family?" Leah asks innocently, and the vampire beside her looks at her quizzically. The tone takes him off guard - he's much more used to the bitter Leah.

"Hunting," Edward says, flashing his topaz eyes at her. She marvels at the color, surprised at their beauty. "The girls went hunting today. Emmett and Jasper are probably goofing off somewhere, and Carlisle is upstairs doing some research about something or another. Nessie is playing with Jacob…"

"And you're tending to the garden."

"But of course."

Leah snorts at his tone, the very tone that gives his true age away.

A dreamy kind of feeling seeps through her bones as she sits there, supported by only her palms, looking at the various flowers planted by their own hands. She feels she could almost go to sleep here, and enjoy it, despite the leech smell. Because, in all actuality, the smell wasn't so cloying after a while.

Her eyes notice how the beams of sun play on the flowers, glistening off of the slight misty dew that had collected on the petals. A small, contented smile crosses her lips and she leans forward to stroke a petal of a white, snowy looking flower.

She doesn't notice the way that Edward looks at her with a smile, glad that he was able to do something to make he smile like this, because it was so rare to see…

"Oh!"

The leech smell has suddenly intensified, and the startled exclamation brings her out of her reverie.

Edward is up on his feet now, in a movement that she did not even see. Damn those sneaky leeches.

He kisses Bella's forehead and says, "Welcome back, love."

The endearment from his lips is enough to cause Leah's stomach to turn, remembering those same kind words from a different time. From a different man. And murmured into her ear.

He knows what she is thinking, so Edward turns and smiles apologetically, but then it turns into a bright, triumphant smile. "Leah and I fixed the garden."

Leah rises from her seated position as he relays the story to the four female vampires that had decided to appear before them. She looks at them with a strange sense of victory, though she doesn't know where that comes from.

"It looks wonderful," Esme praises, bending over and touching a yellow flower with her pale fingertips.

"Thanks," Edward and Leah say at the same time, before they look at each other and grin.

A strange feeling bubbles within Leah's chest. A strange sense of camaraderie with the leech. Somehow, she feels that this won't be too bad, constantly coming to the Cullens' house every day just for Jake, because maybe, she has now made friends too.

Bella looks wonderingly at Edward and Leah, but there is no jealousy in her eternally beautiful face - she knows Edward will always love her and only her. The only palpable emotion on her smooth face is shock. She obviously wasn't expecting to find this when she got home.

Leah's eyes move over to Rosalie, who is looking at her with a sense of softness - she knows what Leah has lost more than anyone, how alone she is most of the time. And she is glad for this change.

Alice has the same all-knowing look on her face. Her eyes look like they have seen something interesting, and a smile quirks her lips as she looks from her to the bronze haired vampire near her.

Leah decides not to bother with figuring out what Alice knows. She figures she'd go insane before she ever figured out what the pixie vamp has seen.

Seth comes barreling up then, phased into his wolf form. His sister looks at him quizzically, and sighs, she knows the look in his eyes all too well. He has done something wrong and he wants his big sis to bail him out.

Leah sighs for what seems like the millionth time that day and turns to the Cullens and gives them a toothy grin. "Well, it's been nice. If you ever need a gardener, don't hesitate to call." She winks at Edward then, "Not that I don't need my assistant."

She hears Edward's laugh before she turns, the pairs of eyes staring at her back are shocked and amused, she knows. She saw the faces of the women before she turned, and she felt a slight thrill from confounding him.

Leah breaks into a run alongside Seth and as soon as she is far enough from the Cullens - _wouldn't want to ruin their faces now, would she?_ \- she jumps as high as she can, in a move reminiscent of Jacob, and phases. Her paws touch the ground and she flies.

\---

Later that night, she finds herself drifting off to sleep, a content smile on her face.

Turns out, Seth had lost their mother's favorite necklace. Their father had given it to her for the anniversary before his death. After a while, they had managed to find it, and it had been a relief for the both of them. They both had experience in dealing with an irate Sue Clearwater, and they could only imagine what would have happened if she came home to find that _that_ particular piece of jewelry was missing. Claire had gotten it and was playing with it when they came across it and they both nearly throttled Quil for letting her get to it.

Leah, thoroughly exhausted after the day's work, had collapsed into bed not two hours after she found the missing item.

She stares up at the dark ceiling now, and feels the weight of her eyelids close, throwing her into the darkness of slumber.

Her mind isn't blank for long, for that night she dreams.

Leah dreams she is laying in a garden - a vast garden full of various fruit-filled trees and flowers of every size. Her eyes are closed and she feels content, even in the dream. The sun streams down on her and she revels in it.

She also revels in the tinkling sound of Edward Cullen's laugh, sounding just beside her, and the sound of the scoop jarring the earth.


End file.
